Honda Recruits Former Suzuki Engineer Ken Kawauchi

Honda continues to improve ahead of the start of MotoGP 2023. Most recently, Honda has officially recruited former Suzuki engineer Ken Kawauchi as the new technical director. Honda hopes that Kawauchi can make the RC213V compete at the top again.

Honda has lost the MotoGP title for 3 consecutive seasons because Marc Marquez routinely goes in and out of the operating table to recover from injuries. Apart from these factors, there are other factors that have made Honda’s performance dragging down over the last few years, namely the motorbike’s inability to perform.

In the 2023 season, Honda wants to correct that mistake, recruiting a lot of new resources. Honda took full advantage of Suzuki’s retirement from MotoGP. They have recruited former Suzuki racers, Alex Rins and Joan Mir, to fill the driver slots on the LCR Honda and Repsol Honda teams.

Not satisfied with that, Honda also recruited former Suzuki technical manager, Ken Kawauchi. Kawauchi has worked at Suzuki for ten years. As technical manager, Kawauchi is a key person alongside Shinichi Sahara and team boss Davide Brivio, who won MotoGP 2020 with Joan Mir.

“HRC (Honda Racing Corporation) has signed Ken Kawauchi as mechanical manager,” said Repsol Honda manager Alberto Puig in a brief statement. Speedweek.

Kawauchi will replace Takeo Yokoyama, who has been in charge of MotoGP technology since 2016 but has come under fire for his poor performance over the last three years.

Honda will put Kawauchi’s knowledge from working at Suzuki to good use. Moreover, he was very familiar with the nature and character of the racers Alex Rins and Joan Mir. Meanwhile Yokoyama will remain with HRC and will train young engineers in Japan in the future.

Marquez on several occasions always criticized the RC213V motorbike which he felt lacked power. Of course, it is very interesting to look forward to Kawauchi’s progress at Repsol Honda. He is indeed good at concocting the Suzuki GSX-RR inline engine so that he can win MotoGP. But the problem is, the Honda RC213V engine carries a V4 configuration. Moreover, the engine specifications for MotoGP 2023 must be homologated on March 23.

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